Browns' future offers hint of good tidings

The Browns' record is no different than it has been heading into the home finale against Chicago. The team is, says it's rising star, who has a clear vision of playoffs, next year.

Steve Doerschuk CantonRep.com sports writer @sdoerschukREP

Looking for the presentable side of the 2013 Browns equates to Christmas shopping at Anthracite Is Us.

How does one get fired up over more lumps of coal?

The record heading into today's cold home finale against Chicago is a bituminous 4-9.

It smacks of the way the old year always passes. In the 2,173 days that have gone by since Romeo Crennel's Browns closed the 2007 season at 10-6, the Browns have presented their faithful with a deluge of defeat, 66 losses against a threadbare 29 victories.

If the current sleigh ride to oblivion is joined, as seems possible, by three more losses, head coach Rob Chudzinski's first season will have ended on a thoroughly unjoyous 1-10 skid.

That would rival the worst run of the wretched expansion-team years, the 1-11 with which Eric Mangini rang in 2009. The Browns have lost their last three games in four of the last five years.

Yet, in this land where the Ghost of Christmas Future never pays Mr. Scrooge a transformative visit, there comes a jingling, faint or distinct depending on the ear, but real.

• For the first time since the team came back in 1999, the Browns are gaining more yards than their opponents. They have 4,481. They have allowed 4,165. It's not close.

At the end of last year, to use one of many similar examples, they had been outgained 5,821 yards to 5,028. Even in the 2007 awakening, they were outgained, on average, 359.6 yards to 351.3.

• There is a star player on offense. Despite sitting out two games, Josh Gordon leads the NFL with 1,400 receiving yards. Just two years ago, the team's leading receiver for 16 games had 709 yards. It's not just the numbers. "Flash" looks the part.

• The air attack has come out of the arctic. In the last four games, coordinator Norv Turner and Company have put up more passing yards, 1,342, than any team except Tom Brady's (1,429).

• The quarterback is competent. It was almost November before Jason Campbell got the job, and he will be making just his sixth start. Yet, he has put up three of the seven best single-game passer ratings achieved by a Browns quarterback in the last five years.

• Ray Horton's defense appears to be on to something. It has allowed 4.6 yards per play, second best in the league behind Seattle's 4.57.

These and other hopeful signs are offset by the misery of another bad record. Yet, the 22-year-old Gordon's eyes sparkle when he shares his vision of what might be.

"A playoff team is what I think we have here," he said. "Maybe with a few different looks, a few different moves from what they do in the front office will change things ... hopefully not drastically.

"Whoever we get, we're going to run with them and hope for the best and definitely train and work hard to get in those playoffs."

As the home portion of another season comes to a close, that is a hope for another day.

Today? In the remaining road games against the Jets and Steelers?

If the Browns win their last three games, they will tie for the third-best record of the expansion era, 7-9 (2001). If they go 2-1, they will tie for the fourth-best record in the 15 seasons since coming back, 6-10 (2005).

Last Sunday, the Browns came within an onside kick recovery of beating the Patriots, who almost never lose at home.

None of the next three games should be as hard to win as that one.

Chicago is 7-6 overall but is in a 1-4 slide in road games.

The Browns are one of 12 teams that are off the board in terms of odds to win the Super Bowl. The biggest longshots still in play are the Jets and Steelers, both at 300-1.

Whatever the final number, it won't generate even the faint warmth of .500.

But it might be fun, quarterback Campbell supposes.

"Guys are playing with a lot of heart right now," he said. "You want to see that, especially when it's late in the season and playoff hopes are gone.

"The real test of a team comes when the odds are against you. What's deep down inside of you? We're going to fight hard the next three games and see where we're at."

With a nod at the New England game, Campbell said, "It's an opportunity to keep going in a positive direction. I see a lot of upside here."

A lump of coal by itself is a miserable gift. With fire, as fuel, it's something.

Each of the bundled customers making a way to the last gathering of the year on Lake Erie will have an opinion on whether it amounts to anything.

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